This week we kick off a new book with some conversation about Sean’s obsession with Graham Greene, why books about spiritual struggle are so compelling, whether this book has an unreliable narrator, and the difference between a novelist who is Catholic and a Catholic who is a novelist.
I’m definitely intrigued with the first five chapters. I also like Sean’s description of “melancholy struggle with suffering” and am here for the Catholic spiritual novel (or spiritual novel by a Catholic)!
I’m reading Anna Karenina right now (loving it would live a reread…) and so have Karenin in my mind to compare to this narrator. Coincidentally, I was looking up The End of the Affair today which also got mentioned (I think by another reader, bc Sean wasn’t hosting yet;) in relation to AK.
Pleaaaaaaase no spoilers! I love not knowing a single thing about a book/author going in. I don’t like having preconceptions! The more blind I am, the more enjoyable the eye-opening part of reading a story is. It challenges me to be a better close reader and is also one fun aspect of reading in community. I’m sure it’s hard not to talk about the book as a whole when you’ve read it once - or several times - before (again, where do y’all find the time?!).
I also loved this novel from the first pages. In contrast, I tried to read The Elegance of the Hedgehog and gave up after only a few pages. Nothing about that novel gripped me, even though it was highly recommended by a friend.
I like what Heidi says about the psychological mystery. I agree that he’s so self deluded I wanted to keep reading to see if I could figure out what really happened.
Also does this narrator remind anyone else of the narrator from Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground? He’s another character living in a hell of his own making.
Also I am reading A Tale of Two Cities with my kids and this narrator reminds me a little of Sidney Carton as he appears at the beginning of that novel.
I hadn’t thought much previously about Moaning Myrtle and appreciate the insight into her character and the objective correlative of her living in the plumbing.
I’m definitely intrigued with the first five chapters. I also like Sean’s description of “melancholy struggle with suffering” and am here for the Catholic spiritual novel (or spiritual novel by a Catholic)!
I’m reading Anna Karenina right now (loving it would live a reread…) and so have Karenin in my mind to compare to this narrator. Coincidentally, I was looking up The End of the Affair today which also got mentioned (I think by another reader, bc Sean wasn’t hosting yet;) in relation to AK.
Pleaaaaaaase no spoilers! I love not knowing a single thing about a book/author going in. I don’t like having preconceptions! The more blind I am, the more enjoyable the eye-opening part of reading a story is. It challenges me to be a better close reader and is also one fun aspect of reading in community. I’m sure it’s hard not to talk about the book as a whole when you’ve read it once - or several times - before (again, where do y’all find the time?!).
I also loved this novel from the first pages. In contrast, I tried to read The Elegance of the Hedgehog and gave up after only a few pages. Nothing about that novel gripped me, even though it was highly recommended by a friend.
I like what Heidi says about the psychological mystery. I agree that he’s so self deluded I wanted to keep reading to see if I could figure out what really happened.
Also does this narrator remind anyone else of the narrator from Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground? He’s another character living in a hell of his own making.
Also I am reading A Tale of Two Cities with my kids and this narrator reminds me a little of Sidney Carton as he appears at the beginning of that novel.
I hadn’t thought much previously about Moaning Myrtle and appreciate the insight into her character and the objective correlative of her living in the plumbing.